20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Animated)

• Directed by Scott Hemming
• December 28, 2004
• Adapted from Jules Verne’s 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Voice Cast

• Captain Nemo-John Michael Lee
• Bernadette-Jennifer Andrews Anderson
• Dr. Aronnax-Anthony Kaczmarek
• Delivery Boy-Nils Haaland
• Darren-Michael Hartig
• Farragut-Matt Kamprath
• Grace-Hannah Koslosky
• Conseil-Jerry Longe
• Jason-Andy Monbouquette
• Diver-Ryle Smith
• Reporter-Paul Sosso
• Bernadette’s Father-Tony Wike
• Ned Land-D. Kevin Williams

A group of friends encounter an advanced submarine and its charismatic captain.

How much does this film version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea adhere to the Jules Verne original inspiration is a mystery to me. As stated elsewhere I owned the Great Illustrated Classics version but did anybody who had those read them?

But book accuracy is not necessarily what we’re after. We watch movies to be entertained. If what they do is good to us it really does not matter if it follows the source perfectly. This version is certainly aimed at children and thus keeps a very simplistic tone. Sadly that makes the characters presented about as two dimensional as you can get.

I came across this adaptation on YouTube. I’m sure there’s a physical release available somewhere. I can’t say you should go and seek it out but I’m sure it’s available somewhere. This version is very safe and bland and is certainly fixated on doing things that were not in the story but are aimed at an audience that may not have an interest in the book.

They shoehorn in a character named Bernadette who I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts was not in the original book. I could be wrong, but I have done some digging and cannot find her mentioned as a character that is either major or minor. A strong female character is not a problem but a character regardless of gender that is strong because others are weaker is. Much of what she does makes Dr. Aronnax, Conseil, or Ned Land unimportant and they are most certainly from the book. In the case of Aronnax and Conseil they serve largely to react as impressed by Bernadette’s abilities while Ned is there to show concern and be protective of her to a degree.

And her inclusion and the necessity to build her up takes away from those characters. The only book character that gets any depth is Nemo while those around Bernadette are little more than caricatures. When something like this occurs it is usually a ‘creative’ mind hijacking some known commodity to do what they want rather than creating something original to do with as they please. Such a maneuver is disrespectful to those that created what they are taking over and lazy on the part of the person doing it.

The animation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea fails to impress too. I don’t need the greatest animation that money can buy but this looks relatively cheap by Saturday morning standards. Not as cheap as something from the 60s, but certainly cheap for something from the early 2000s.

The voice work is passable but barely so. The cast is small, but the relatively undifferentiated voices make it feel so much smaller. It does not help that only two characters get any real depth with the lines of the others being interchangeable.

The story ambles along rather than moving briskly. This is about 74 minutes and is an adaptation of a novel but the story just slowly moves along until it hits the limitations of its runtime and credits must roll.

For kids this version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is not bad but that’s for very young kids. The older they get the less appealing it will be and for adults I can’t say there’s anything worth seeing in this. It’ll certainly entertain the toddlers, but unless you have toddlers skip it.